Idag skal jeg ta dere med på en liten spasertur i ‘Norges eldste by’: Tønsberg Strategisk kan man godt forstå at byen ble opprettet akkurat her. Kort vei til sjøen, en godt skjermet havn med flere seilingsmuligheter og gode kommunikasjonsmuligheter innover i landet.
Sagafortelleren ‘Snorre Sturlason‘ (1178-1241) ville ha det til at Tønsberg ble grunnlagt i 871 AC, men i ettertid har det vært vanskelig å få dette historisk dokumentert.
Arkeologer har foretatt en rekke utgravninger og historikere har endevendt alt man har kunnet komme over, før man i disse dager har konkludert med at byen sannsynligvis ble opprettet i1105 AC, og offisiell omtale av Tønsberg som ‘by’ er funnet i dokumenter som kan dateres tilbake til 1130 AC.Today I’ll take you on a small tour through what’s probably the oldest city in Norway: ‘Tønsberg’. It’s relatively easy to understand why the city was established just here. It’s a very short sailing distance to the open seas, but with an extremely well sheltered harbour with several sailing routes and centrally located when it comes to inland communications.
The ‘historyteller’ Snorre Sturlason would have it that this city was founded in 871 AC, but later is has been impossible to verify this historically.Archaeologists have excavated large areas and historians have turned every stone in order to find evidence that might back Snorre Sturlason on his claim, but today one conclude that Tønsberg may have been founded around 1105 AC. There has been documents that has been dated back to 1130 AC which reviews Tønsberg as a ‘city’ at this time. Whatever one chooses to believe: Tønsberg is a very old city in a Norwegian setting!Dette er et bilde fra den eldre delen av byen. Selvsagt er ikke husene lenger fra 1100-tallet, men gatene er ganske smale i forhold til hva som er vanlig idag.

This is a picture from the older part of the city. Of course, the houses are no longer from the 1100-century, but the streets are much narrower than what’s usual today.

In this part of the city we find ‘Svend Foyns Bedehus (House of worship)’. Svend Foyn was one of the renowned persons born in the Tønsberg area through all times. He was the one that developed modern sealing as well as industrial whaling and patented his cathing methods including the harpoon grenade.Og her – i en litt annen del av byen – står han den dag i dag!
And here – in an other part of the city – he stand tall even today!Her ligger fylkesadministrasjonen i Vestfold
Here lies the county administration in VestfoldOg en liten vakker park –
And a small but beautiful park‘Wilh. Wilhelmsens Rederi‘ tro jeg enhver nordmann må ha hørt om. Et av verdens største linjerederier med skip på de aller fleste hav, og her står skipsrederen selv!

‘The Wilhelmsen Lines‘ must be a very familiar name to most Norwegians. One of the largest shipping lines throughout the world with ships on most any ocean in the world!
And here is the ship owner himself!Et par gatebilder fra Tønsberg
A couple of street shots from TønsbergSom dere kan se: Tønsberg er en overveiende ‘grønn by’
As you may see: Tønsberg is a rather ‘green city’.Her nede ved ‘kanalbrua’ slipper båter på 30 ft ut under brua, men ellers kan den selvsagt åpnes for litt større fartøyer –

Here by the ‘Canal bridge’ leisure crafts up to 30-35 ft may pass under the bridge, but of course the bridge may be opened if larger crafts should arrive.Her er vi inne på selve Tønsberg havn med Tønsberg Marina midt i bildet.

Here we are inside Tønsberg Harbour itself with Tønsberg Marina in the middle of the picture.Tønsberg Marina i en litt annen vinkel.
The Tønsberg Marina in a slightly different angle.

One of the businesses that have secured a nice location for the future, is the local paper:
Tønsbergs Blad. What a nice place to work?!Eller man kan sikre seg en moderne bolig med utsikt til sjø og kanskje en nærliggende kaiplass for båten?
Or you may secure a modern apartment facing the sea and possibly also a near by mooring for your boat?Tønsberg er i det hele tatt et trivelig sted å bo!Tønsberg is– generally speaking – a pleasant placeto stay!Og her ‘Esmeralda’! Det er i det hele tatt mange alternativer for en sommerkveld på byen!
And here: ‘Esmeralda’! You have a lot of alternatives for a summernight out –Sånn kunne jeg fortsette en stund 🙂
I could keep this up for a while 🙂

All of a sudden something out of the ordinary comes up: The old Customs Office has also become a restaurant with catering and serving outside as well as inside. Here they may accept parties including as many as 150 people!Men – nok hoteller og restauranter. Tønsberg har mer å by på! Så la oss et øyeblikk forlate sjøen og isteden kanskje komme oss litt opp i høyden?

But – enough hotels and restaurants. There’s more to Tønsberg than beer on the waterfront 🙂 So let’s leve that waterfront and try for higher ground?

Vi befinner oss nå bare et steinkast fra domkirken i Tønsberg.
At the moment we are only a ‘stonethrow’ away from the cathedral in Tønsberg

Her ligger også ‘Maskinistenes Hus’. Tønsberg er og har alltid vært en ‘martim by’!
Here lies also ‘The engineers association’s house’. Tønsberg is – and have always been – a ‘maritime city’Tønsberg Domkirke er vanskelig å fotografere grunnet nærliggende trær, men jeg fikk det da til på et vis.
Tønsberg Cathedral is hard to photograph due to the close vegetation around it, but I think I made it in a ’roundabout way’?

All of a sudden I passed a memorial: Pricess Kristina??? I’m no specialist on royal families, but I never even heard about a pricess by that name! It was Google that saved me yet another time, but unfortunately I didn’t find a link with English text. But this pricess was a local to Tønsberg, born in 1234, married and died in Spain in 1262. She only became 28 years of age. And I always thought Spain to be a healthy place to live?Her oppe fra ser vi ‘ned’ på domkirken og resten av byen. Vi er på det såkalte ‘Slottsfjellet’ i Tønsberg.
From up here we look down upon the Tønsberg Cathedral and the rest of the city. We’re standing on the so called ‘Slottsfjellet’ (Castle Mountain) above the city.

The small ‘mountain’ called ‘Slottsfjellet‘ is the top peak in Tønsberg with its 208 ft., but there is another hill in the community of Tønsberg which is about twice as high. The tower was built to the citys 1000 year celebration in 1888.

Her oppe har jeg tatt en del panorama bilder for å gi dere et inntrykk av Tønsberg og beliggenheten.
Up here I have taken a few ‘panorama shots’ in order to let you get an over all impression from the city and its location.

Off Fellow had a grand building in Tønsberg, but – we are still on ‘Slottsfjellet’. This picture was taken with a zoom lense.Et tidligere sykehjem var ombygget til et ‘ Træleborg senior senter’
A former nursing home was converted to a ‘Træleborg Senior Center’Og her er det nye Træleborg Sykehjem, som ikke er så nytt lenger 🙂
And here is the new ‘Træleborg Nursing Home’ (Which isn’t so very new any more)

Et par nye gatebilder for å vise dere at det fortsatt er snakk om en ‘grønn by’
A few more street pictures to ensure you that we are still talking about ‘a green city’

Her er vi i selve bykjernen. Her ligger Sparebank 1’s filial i Tønsberg
Now we are back in the city center. Here is the local office of ‘Sparebank 1’

Sem church is as old as Tønsberg itself. It’s estimated that the church was built around 1100 AC and seats 300 people. Earlier Sem was its own community but today included into Tønsberg.Jarlsberg Hovedgård har vært et gammel kongesete. Det er noe uvisst når den ble bygget, men en tid gikk den under navnet Sem Kongsgård.‘Jarlsberg Estate‘ was once used by the King himself. I’m uncertain as to the when it was built.Slagen kirke er bygget i 1901 og har plass til 500 mennesker.

Slagen church was built in 1901 and seats 500 people!

Da håper jeg at dere sitter tilbake med et godt inntrykk av Tønsberg?
Then I hope you have gained a best possible impression from Tønsberg?
(Compliments of SRB )

I’m pretty sure most people could! If you go back ‘a hundred years’ I was serving in the Norwegian navy and was stationed in a city called Horten some 15 miles to the North, but given time – this city is where we went for a good time! And just on its doorstep a fantastic archipelago with hundreds of islands . . .

These pictures were very interesting. My mother was born in Tonsberg in 1915 and baptized in Domkirken Tonsberg. Her family moved to Chicago when she was eight years old. My husband and I made the trip to Tonsberg last summer for the first time and I met several second cousins. So exciting! We also took the Norway in a Nutshell tour of the Sognefjord and Hardangerfjord and visited Bergen which was my father’s mother’s home. What a beautiful country!

Thank you, Marilyn!
It’s heartwarming to hear that you find my pictures interesting. Actually this blog was initiated because of you (Iand 5 million other Americans with a Norwegian heritage)
People who most likely are curious as to how it looks where relatives once lived? It’s a never ending job to photograph every corner of our long country, but at least I have started out on this crusade. May be someone wil take over when I’m gone? But – there is a better way to go about this: Please use my INDEX. Here all destinations are listed alphabetically and under their respective counties, and you can easily see how many photos are included in each post. Furthermore you’ll find a return link to INDEX at the bottom of most every post, which makes it very easy to travel digitally throughout Norway.

Thank you, Kalabalu! Yes I think you’d have enjoyed it. Even if it is a city, it would have been quiet compared to your standards 🙂 Been missing you for a while there? Have you been away for some reason?

It doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it? I have checked it out, opened it and tried to klick pictures into full screen. It’s working all the time. Have you tried to open other posts? And perhaps not only on this blog? But please observe: It’s a heavy blog and some of the posts are alsom heavy since we always give you the pictures large enough to cover a 24″ screen completely. Nice to see that you are OK 🙂

Thanks for taking us with you for a walk in Tønsberg. I was there two times. Both times in summer, at a distance of 15 years. The first time the sun was shining and the Tønsberg Marina doesn’t exist in the form like it does now. The second time it was raining so we only went shopping. And unfortunately I never made it to Slottsfjellet. Ha en fin dag! 🙂

Then you know that yo have som ‘unfinished business’ in Tønsberg 🙂 and that ‘the third visit’ is always the best. (You know your way around) Imagine sitting at one of the open air restaurants taking it all in – in sunshine, of course . . .

Thanks for the tip! I spent a week at Nøtterøy in a cottage with a spectacular view over the sea and the islands. It’s such a beautiful place. And at Tjøme I was too. 😉
Maybe all the bloggers are out and enjoy that spring has arrived finally.

Well, this particular report was posted 3 or 4 months back. It has certainly been time enough. And the link has been included in at least a dozen other reports, but – the facts are there: Only 3 ‘Likes’ to this report, whereas there might be 25-45 on everything else . . . And I don’t think the photographs used are the least bit worse than others 😀